Officials don’t want a repeat this year, so they’re trying something that worked for a nearby
city: They’re shooting fireworks a day earlier. Moving the display to July 3 will put it in direct
competition with Columbus’ much larger Red White & Boom, Reynoldsburg Mayor Brad McCloud said,
and, city leaders hope, keep a lot of outsiders away.

Whitehall shifted its fireworks to July 3 last year and didn’t arrest a single person that
night. Police there used to make anywhere from 17 to 25 arrests during Independence Day
celebrations, Whitehall Mayor Kim Maggard said. Troublemakers almost always were from out of
town.

“They come in from the surrounding Columbus area, and then it becomes our problem,” Maggard
said.

Reynoldsburg officials think that their problems last year stemmed from nonresidents as well,
though they don’t have proof. “They didn’t show up wearing name tags,” McCloud said, but police
heard reports that young teens piled into taxis and arrived at Civic Park “looking for
trouble."

Police who were trying to control the flow of both people and cars out of the park suddenly had
a bunch of other problems: Someone set fire to the dry grass in a nearby field. Some Whitehall
residents who knew one another fought at an apartment complex. A large group of teenagers — perhaps
the kids from the cabs — brawled in a gas-station parking lot.

The incidents spanned a quarter-mile and were too widespread for officers to respond quickly,
especially given the jammed traffic, O’Neill said. The fights and fire were over by the time they
arrived. Police arrested just one person: A Whitehall resident was charged with domestic
violence.

Maggard said a few residents complained when Whitehall moved its fireworks, but most seemed
happy with the result. That city is sticking with the change. O’Neill expects Reynoldsburg
residents to embrace it as well.

“It will localize the crowd,” he said. “It will bring people into the park that maybe avoided it
because they didn’t want to deal with the outsiders.”